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Based on the readings for this module and your personal experience, what can be done to ease these emotions among your staff?

This is both an easy and difficult question to answer. In one sense it is common sense: "Do what you would do to ease a friend through a difficult change." On another level, it offers an entry point into the many ideas of managing change filtered through the various schools of management approaches presented in the text book. But going in a bit deeper, one can ask why these emotions are to be expected at all.

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Let’s begin by asking why it's necessary for leadership to “ease” the emotions of “tension, anxiety, resistance, and conflict” during periods of organizational or departmental change?

Why not simply allow staff members to experience these emotions on their own? – they are presumably adults after all and have had experience managing change in other aspects of their lives. “Just deal with it,” says our hypothetical manager. “Read the memo and follow the new instructions.” Depending on the staff members, the quality of the memo, and the importance attached to the change this could be a very good example of management.

But how often are staff members totally self-actualized, how often is a memo expressed with perfect clarity and sufficient detail, and how often are changes to an organization or department not scrutinized and judged?

Reality would suggest not very often. Imagine a general on a battlefield sending a field order to troops and trusting that everything will just happen as she imagines it. Get the white flag ready and make sure you have a copy of a how-to speak your conqueror’s language book at the ready.

Back in reality, a major reason to ease staff emotions is to prevent waste as defined in three Japanese terms adapted from the ideas presented in the writings about the Toyota Production System: 1) Muda ("futility; uselessness; wastefulness"), 2) Mura ("unevenness; irregularity; lack of uniformity; nonuniformity; inequality"), and 3) Muri ("unreasonableness; impossible; beyond one's power; too difficult; by force; perforce; forcibly; compulsorily; excessiveness; immoderation") (Wikipedia, 2017).

Tension creates a form of waste in which a staff member isn’t sure what to do in the new work situation brought about by the change. Anxiety creates a form of waste through inattention to detail (her mind is unsettled) and even the possibility of the staff member looking for a new position (resulting in the need to hire and train a new staff member. Resistance creates a form of waste in which the speed of the adoption of the new system is delayed, not followed uniformly, or sabotaged. Conflict creates a waste of emotional energy of both staff member and manager and can lead to delays, sabotage, or even premature failure of a new initiative as well as loss of authority for the manager or organization. Or even marketplace failure.

Can a manager, a staff member or organization function well under these types of conditions?

Not over a long period. Waste affects both the staff member, the manager, and the organization and leads ultimately to unhappy departments and organizations.

Logically, the best course of action would be to manage an organization from the beginning to minimize waste of any kind and to avoid these emotions being generated in the first place. It is a defeatist manager and company who assumes these to be unavoidable because “that’s just the way it is.” That kind of attitude does not show empathy and kindness to fellow employees nor respect for the long-term health of the organization.

So what can be done?

Assuming you work for an organization that is not aligned with goals that attempt to eliminate waste before it happens, and that is not structured as a learning organization as popularized in by Peter Senge in The Fifth Discipline, then I would suggest the following starting point of what you need to know before you intervene with your staff.

Ask yourself the following questions:

How well do you know yourself?

Are you convinced of the need for the change? Do you have the communication competency necessary to ease emotions in your staff? Do you have credibility with your staff?

How well do you know your staff members?

What ways of communication and reassurance are most effective with individual staff members? Do you know enough about their actual work to empathize with how the change will affect them? Do they trust you?

How well do you know your organization?

Does your organization punish failure? Can you trust upper management to follow through with change initiatives? Do you trust their leadership competency?

How well do you understand the size and scope of the change you must deal with?

Do you understand how the change will affect your, your staff and other parts of the organization you interact with? Can you explain the change in simple terms or using a visualization tool?

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Moving on, let’s assume that you’ve reflected on the above questions.

First, convince yourself of the need for the change. Secure your own mask first. You can’t help others if you yourself aren’t convinced of the need for the change. Assuming you came to the conclusion that the change is necessary and wise, you are in a better state of mind to explain and convince others of the need for the change.

Second, whenever possible, tell your staff of the change situation at the same time to avoid any appearance of favoritism. Use neutral terminology and language to avoid biasing your communication of the change to your staff.  Use a visualization tool or example(s) when possible to help staff members understand the change. Be balanced in your communication – point out the potential upsides of the change as well as the negatives to demonstrate empathy with staff members, managerial competence, and balance.

Third, provide time for questions and concerns. Listen. There may be issues that weren’t considered by the architects of the change. Let local staff knowledge enter the conversation and demonstrate respect for the competence of staff members.

Fourth, provide clarity, comfort, compassion, and control as the management of the change unfolds. The measurement of your success depends on how well your staff members embrace the change and align their emotional states with the achievement of the change. Provide training, one-on-one meetings, and above all, clarity of expectations.

Obviously, the material presented above can only be a set of general guidelines. Every change situation is unique and depends on a constellation of factors that will vary greatly. There is no right way to manage and contingency rules here. There is only the continuous readjustment as the situation unfolders and your responses to the unfolding dynamic. But you can improve your odds of navigating change well by adopting prudent practices gleaned from management literature, psychology, religious teachings, and even military strategy. Management allows for many unexpected sources of value and teaching.

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For a discussion of the ideas of waste one can start with various books on Lean Management but I would suggest that the Japanese sources provide a more penetrating understanding of the concepts. See in particular the works of Shigeo Shingo and Taiicho Ohno.